Tag: education australia

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Celebrating Australia Day Four Ways

Australia Day is often associated with the public holiday, fireworks and the beach, but when it comes to our early childhood educational services, Australia Day can be a special opportunity to celebrate this great country.

To mark the occasion this year, we’ve come up with four avenues for you to explore and offered some ideas and activities for your service to include or for parents to utilise at home.

Diversity

Australia Day is a great day to talk about diversity and multiculturalism – ask children what they know about Australia and all its unique people. Use this opportunity to discuss the fact that despite us all being so different in so many ways, we are all Australia and there is respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Geography

Break out the map of Australia and talk about the different areas across this huge country. Open children’s minds to the big, wide world – or in this case, the big, wide island that is Australia! Maps can be great fun to turn into an art project as children cover the country in different colours and textures – this further represents the diversity and uniqueness of the country and all its people.

Art

Speaking of art, what better way to go about celebrating Australia Day and its people than doing some beautiful cave drawings, inspired by Indigenous Australia. Handprints, fingerpainting or dot art depicting kangaroos, boomerangs and the desert landscape can be insightful activities.

Music

The national anthem isn’t the only Aussie song we can break out to mark Australia Day… Kids might prefer the fun of singing classics like Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree or Home Among the Gum Trees (maybe just the chorus as it’s a long one!).

As always, we love to see everyone’s creative ways of incorporating the cultural calendar into your services – please do share with us on Facebook or by commenting here on the blog.

Try these resource-packed links that may be useful to you in planning your Australia Day celebrations:

http://australiaday2015messages.com/australia-day-2015-artwork-crafts-activities-project-with-pics/

http://www.fleetcare.com.au/news-info/news/fun-facts-about-australia-day.aspx

http://www.australiaday.org.au/events/

P.S.
Don’t forget to incorporate some Aussie food – lamingtons are always a winner!

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Western Australia Welcomes Bonkers

Not only was November a very busy month, it also marked a ‘first’ for Bonkers the Monkey – his very first trip to Western Australia! While Bonkers and Galina travel a lot both in and out of Australia, this was an exciting maiden voyage for the Bonkers Beat team.

And what a wonderful, warm and welcoming place Western Australia is! From the moment we arrived until the moment we left, the trip was an absolute pleasure. The people, the views, the food, the climate – just beautiful.

The busy adventure in the West included attendance at a conference that was a highly successful event, as well as networking with many educators and centres from Perth and its surrounds.

If you haven’t already, check out our Perth album on the Bonkers Beat Facebook page to see what a great time we had enjoying as much of Perth as we could in the short space of time that we had.

Western Australia, a big thank you for having us and we can’t wait to come back and visit again soon!

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Participation for Sense of Community and Belonging

As educators and/or as parents of children, we regularly encourage these young people to participate and ideally to be an active participant where possible. Why? Because this is of course a fantastic way to learn and to work towards the goal of belonging, being and becoming. We are, after all, not solitary beings and frequently as both children and adults life presents collaborative situations with others.

The Bonkers Beat team believes in participation and community involvement and that’s why we were so excited to hold our recent working bee at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder in Aspendale, Victoria. Families, educators and friends came together striving towards the common goal of improving the Centre’s outdoor spaces and we were blown away by the commitment and passion shown by our community. Not only do events like working bees bring us all together and bring about great achievements, but what an important example to set for the children in our community, allowing them to see firsthand the adults they look up to working together.

Creating a sense of belonging and connectedness in your Centre’s community is in line with Outcome 2 of the Learning Outcomes for Children from Birth to 5 Years, and that is: Children are connected with and contribute to their world. Belonging is also an area that assessors will consider during the NQS rating process, paying extra attention to Quality Area 6 – Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities.

We have found that working bees, our Harmony Nights and various other special events in the calendar for Centres can have incredible and immeasurable benefits – we’d love to know what ways you encourage participation to facilitate belonging and a sense of community in your Centre’s families, so please share with us on our Facebook page or here on the blog by commenting.

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Engaging Multiple Intelligences

When it comes to education at any level, we often see great emphasis placed on two areas of intelligence – verbal or English and maths. Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests and many academic tests predominantly measure aptitude in these areas. While we believe in the importance of these areas, we are also passionate about the idea of each person having multiple intelligences’ and that each one of these areas should be nurtured in early childhood education and beyond.

The term ‘multiple intelligences’ refers to a theory by American developmental psychologist Howard Gardner, who proposed that there are eight kinds of intelligence and of course we each possess skills within these. The eight areas Dr Gardner identified are:

Musical – a great understanding of music and often enjoy singing or tapping away
Linguistic – talented when it comes to words. These children may enjoy reading, writing and telling stories
Logical-mathematical – ability in maths and patterns. Skilled in strategy games
Bodily-kinesthetic – great physical ability when it comes to sports and expressing oneself physically
Spatial – often think visually and have well-developed artistic ability
Intrapersonal – understanding of their own emotions and desires with the ability to be self-motivated
Interpersonal – perceptive and leaders among peers with exceptional communication skills and ability to understand the feelings of others
Naturalist – a natural aptitude for recognising and classifying elements in nature, from animals to plants

Here are some really great links that offer comprehensive information on how to identify where one’s strengths lie when it comes to these seven areas, as well as supporting and opposing theories and the eights type of intelligence that Dr Gardner later identified: ‘naturalist’, referring to an ability to recognise elements in nature.

LINKS:
http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/multiple_intelligences/
http://www.examiner.com/article/what-are-multiple-intelligences
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=251
http://www.professorlamp.com/ed/TAG/7_Intelligences.html
As you can see, each child can fit into many of these intelligence categories to varying degrees. This broader view of intelligence equips educators and parents alike with the ability to teach in a way that can enhance these areas and allow children to blossom in the areas they are naturally destined to excel in.

Visit the Bonkers Beat Facebook page and share your ideas when it comes to educational techniques that focus one or more particular areas – we’d love to hear from you.

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Celebrating NAIDOC Week

It’s a special time around July each year when we celebrate NAIDOC Week around Australia – NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’, who would organise the events for this week of celebration but has since become the name of the week itself.

From July 6-13, 2014 all Australians come together to take part in activities to celebrate and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The NAIDOC website offers a range of suggestions to help you come up with ideas to join in the celebration of Australia’s Indigenous culture. Here are a few of our favourites:

  • Display Indigenous posters around your class room
  • Invite local Indigenous elders to speak at your school or workplace.
  • Listen to Indigenous music.
  • Research the traditional Indigenous owners of your area.
  • Study Aboriginal arts and crafts.
  • Read a Dreamtime story.
  • Create your own Aboriginal art.
  • Visit local Indigenous sites of significance or interest.
  • Learn the meanings of local or national Aboriginal place names.
  • Invite Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander dancers to perform.

The discussion of NAIDOC and Aboriginal culture fits well with our previous blog about music and its benefits, as song, music and dance are at the heart of Indigenous culture. Song is seen as a means of expression, along with the art of performance and dance to tell a story. They are so important to Aboriginal people and often are at the core of special ceremonies, often adding very special significance to the music itself.

It is interesting to note that while we often see music, art, performance, dance and storytelling as separate things, the Aboriginal viewpoint sees them as a whole. And what a wonderful perspective that is to have! In some instances, Aboriginal elders may sing and paint the story as they sing about it. The stories and music will often focus on community, culture and their relationship with the land.

Read more about Australia’s Indigenous ceremonies, Indigenous performers and NAIDOC Week via these useful links:

http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-ceremony
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Indigenous-Australia/

http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/trade.html

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